Fenix Museum Honors the Memory of Migration and Invites to Dialogue

Adrian Paci (Albania) - Centro di Permanenza Temporanea (film, 2007). “Waiting for a ride that will not come”. Museo Fénix

The idea, however fragile, that something better can happen. Many have arrived. Still arrive. Others haven't. They've been trapped in the limbo of the "eternal wait," holding on, believing that endurance is enough to reach that "different future”, while hope slowly fades.

What happens when you wait so long that you no longer remember what you were waiting for? That is the wound of someone who dreams of a destination, and remains on the stairs of uncertainty, waiting for the journey that never comes, while transit or refuge become a prison, while living and dying simultaneously.

The Fenix museum on migration was opened on 16 May 2025 in Rotterdam. It is located on the site where the cargo warehouse of the Holland America shipping line stood from 1923, which transported thousands of people searching for better opportunities. The museum features several permanent exhibitions that showcase different facets of migration—what it means to migrate, and what it feels like to find oneself in new realities and contexts. On the website, there are videos in which the artists talk about their work, their motivations, and their reflections on the subject.”

The modern human being exists through mobility.

In every family, there is at least one story of migration.

Migration is universal, timeless, and collective.